No, this is an old picture of a protest against Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta in the United Kingdom

This article is more than one year old.
Published on January 24, 2020 at 12:15
3 min read
By Mary KULUNDU, AFP Kenya

A photo circulating on social media claims to show Kenyans in London protesting against President Uhuru Kenyatta during his visit to the UK-Africa Investment Summit in January 2020. This is false: the image is from a UK trip in April 2018 when he was heckled over Kenya's treatment of a key opposition figure.

The post was shared on January 20 on this political Facebook Group with more than 300,000 followers. It generated more than 600 interactions, according to Crowdtangle, a social media analysis site.

“Kenyans living in United Kingdom demonstrating against Uhuru Kenyatta who is currently attending UK-Africa summit,” the caption reads alongside a picture of people waving placards saying “Respect the Rule of Law”, “Born Kenyan Forever Kenyan” and “Respect human rights”. The post has been taken down since.

Screenshot of Crowdtangle data showing social media interaction of the misleading post

Screenshot taken on January 22, 2020 of Facebook post claiming to show recent protest in the UK against Kenya's president

A similar post was shared on this political Facebook Group, which has 80,000 followers. The comments suggest some believe the protests to be recent while others correctly identify the image as being old.

Similar claims gained more than 100 retweets and 400 likes on this Twitter account with 28,000 followers. Another post sharing the same allegation can be found here.

It is an old image

A reverse image search on Google and TinEye reveals the picture was first used two years ago. It appeared here and here in local media coverage of protests outside the Chatham House think tank in London after Kenyatta delivered a speech.

Meanwhile, a YouTube search with keywords such as “protest,” “Chatham House,” “Uhuru Kenyatta” revealed this video published on April 18, 2018 by a Kenyan media outlet reporting about the protests in London the day before. In the clip, Kenyatta is seen being escorted to his car by his security detail as the placard-waving crowd heckles him.

Kenya's leading newspaper Daily Nation reported that the protesters accused Kenyatta of human rights abuses, ignoring the rule of law and mismanaging the Kenyan economy.

Demonstrators also demanded the government obey a High Court order allowing outspoken opposition figure Miguna Miguna back into Kenya after his controversial deportation.

On February 6, 2018, Miguna took part in Nairobi in a mock swearing-in of opposition leader Raila Odinga who claimed to have won the 2017 presidential election.

Miguna Miguna (L) took part in a mock swearing-in of opposition leader Raila Odinga (C) on January 30, 2018 (AFP/ Tony Karumba)

Shortly afterwards, Miguna was deported to Canada after facing accusations of treason. See AFP’s report here and live footage of his departure on an international flight here.

Despite Kenya's High Court ordering officials on February 26, 2018 to allow him back into the country, he has repeatedly been denied entry as this AFP report and this tweet by German airline Lufthansa show.

The interior ministry at the time said Miguna had "denounced" his Kenyan citizenship after obtaining Canadian citizenship several years ago.

However, holding dual citizenship is legal in Kenya and Miguna ran for political office in August 2017 with proof of Kenyan citizenship, a key criterion for all candidates.

Why did the protest image resurface?

The old picture started re-circulating a day after Miguna took to Twitter and encouraged Kenyan residents in Britain to “show” Kenyatta “no one is above the law” as he arrived in London for the 2020 UK-Africa Investment Summit on January 20.

The Kenyan president was among African leaders attending the summit meant to strengthen ties with Britain.

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